Don’t miss a moment of the most important and enjoyable years of your life!

At Furze Platt Junior School we know that regular attendance is directly linked to raising achievement and being in school helps develops skill for life and work. Please support the school in this by ensuring that your child attends school regularly and arrives ready to learn.

Attendance Matters
Primary national pupil attendance is around 96%. This means that a child needs to attend school for at least 177 out of 190 days to meet national expectations.

An attendance of 90% might seem quite high but it actually equates to 1/2 a day off per week which is over 19 days an academic year! Missing nearly 4 weeks of school will mean that a child not only misses key learning but they will miss out on wow moments, socialisation with friends and a structure to their life that is invaluable as they move through education and into adulthood. 

Understanding types of absence
Every ½ day absence (a session) from school, by law, has to be classified as either authorised or unauthorised. This is why information about the cause of absence is always asked for.

Authorised absences are mornings or afternoons away from school for a good reason such as illness (please read 'Is my child too ill for school'), medical appointments and set religious observance/holy days.

An absence is classified as Unauthorised if the reason was not recognised as acceptable.

Examples of reasons that would not be accepted:

A birthday
A shopping trip
Day trips
Holidays – unless have been agreed as exceptional circumstances

What should I do if my child is absent from school?
Contact the school office on the first morning before and notify us of the absence and provide a reason. Parents and carers can ring the school and leave a message on the answer machine or email the school office (office@fpjs.org.uk) before the reception opens at 8:30am.

Punctuality

Punctuality is so important and it shows that the children that are regularly late do not achieve as well as those children who complete their morning registration carousel everyday; the carousel starts from 8:45am and includes a blend of academic, wellbeing and pastoral activities to start the day.

To help stagger children entering the school and to help families with congestion around the school grounds, we allow children to be in the school building from 8:40am for an 8:45 start to registration and morning carousels. The gates will close just before 9:00am and anyone arriving after this time will need to enter the school via the school office. If your child is in school after 9:00am they will be recorded as late and this will record the child as absent for that ‘session’ (there are two school sessions a day, morning and afternoon and both start with a register being taken). The session is the whole morning so a child arriving after 9:00am will be recorded as absent for the whole morning, even if they arrive at 9:05am!

Attendance Monitoring
As attendance and punctuality is so important to us, we cannot be complacent where there are instances of unacceptable, low pupil attendance from school absence or arriving late.

Arriving after 9:00am will dramatically impact your child’s attendance! If your child’s attendance drops below 92% we will send out warning letters for attendance to improve and we offer a chance to meet and discuss any problems that you may have regarding your child’s attendance; our Family Support Worker is available to help with routines, advise and strategies to help your child be on time to school.

If attendance drops below 90% (the equivalent of 1 session late and/or missed a week, morning or afternoon) we discuss your child's attendance with the Borough’s Educational Welfare Officer who may take further action. An attendance below 90% is classed as Persistent Absence. This information is detailed in Appendix B of the Policy.

There are always allowances for some circumstances (i.e. ongoing medical issues that are known to the school) but there, rightly, is a big emphasis from the government and the Local borough to ensure that children are in school and in school at the time that they should be in.

Please support us by ensuring that your child is in school every day that they can be and that they are, ideally, in from 8:40am for an 8:45am start.

FPJS Attendance Lead is Mike Wallace